Reward Gateway CMO suggests how to engage a remote workforce
Two-thirds of employees around the world say they prefer a hybrid arrangement, according to the Summer 2022 Future Forum Pulse.
When asked why they want the option to come into the office, 74% of employees said “collaborating with co-workers/clients, building camaraderie and facilitating in-person meetings.” Meanwhile, 16% of employees said “having a quiet space to focus on getting my work done” and 10% said “putting in face time with management.”
“The hardest thing for HR leaders to accept is how much of their jobs moving forward will be about how to construct their HR policies in a nimble way, as opposed to trying to find a one-size-fits-all solution to the challenge of engaging a remote workforce,” Julie Zadow, chief marketing officer at Reward Gateway, told HRD.
“People have had a reckoning with what work-life balance means to them and they’re coming into their workplace environments with a stronger sense of what they’re entitled to,” Zadow says. “They want control in terms of how they get their work done, which has disrupted HR policies and made it more challenging for HR leaders. That’s why it’s vital to re-ground HR policies with the idea of some level of personalization and flexibility, and then build from that starting point in a way that HR leaders haven’t previously been instructed.”
It's not just HR that needs to adapt – all company leaders need to reconfigure their expectations and be willing to accommodate employees’ needs.
Let’s face it, climbing up the company ladder requires an entirely different approach these days. A boss walking through the office, stopping by their subordinate’s cubicle and patting them on the back for a job well done is old-school. Now that hybrid work is all the rage, that type of interaction, as well as the perception that a model employee is in the office from 9-to-5, is as antiquated as the fax machine.
“Leaders have to realize what got them to their leadership role won’t be the thing that gets the next generation of people to their leadership role,” Zadow says. “They must adjust their management style and methods of engagement to help others rise up to their full potential.”
